Neil Postman (2000) raises excellent questions regarding the impact of technology and the purpose of schools, and while each set of questions deserves pages of commentary, I would like to consider a single aspect from each of them.
With regards to technology, I want to examine the effects of virtual social interaction; in examining schools, I would like to discuss an important concept Postman fails to acknowledge in his article.
First, I believe technology has recently introduced a range of mediums in which people can interact with people locally and around the world. Postman worries younger children may become lost in virtual worlds, but how enticing are these virtual realities? Many people, especially college students, have active accounts with Facebook, MySpace, and/or instant messaging servers (e.g., AOL, G-mail, etc.). A concern I have about these social networks is that they can cause users to become obsessed in a virtual world. Foremost, I have seen many college students lose hours to checking their status (and their friends’ through “news feed”) on Facebook, chatting with friends on various instant messaging services, and viewing random MySpace pages. If people overly invest themselves into these virtual worlds, they may lose touch with the necessary behaviors required in face-to-face interactions. I do not deny that each of these networks is capable of providing a community, but how powerful is a community of strangers connected by a shred of similarity? Of course, I do not challenge the force of a community of strangers brought together for a common cause, but people with similar interests in movies, music, locations, and comical groups generally construct the pieces of these networks. We must urge the younger generation that the virtual world is a means to a greater end. It is a tool that when wielded with care and direction can provide a pathway to create positive change.
Second, the amount of information available to students outside of the classroom greatly surpasses that within it, but Postman urges us to consider the social values that will be lost if young children do not enter schools to learn from cooperative learning. While I agree with Postman’s concern, in addition to being an opponent to at-home schooling, he fails to acknowledge the ability teachers have to construct working schemes to organize the information. Parents who have experience in education may be able to prepare their children to categorize knowledge better than most, but teachers are professionally trained to assist students in acquiring these skills. What good is a plethora of knowledge when students have no concept of how to organize it, in order to retrieve it later when necessary? How much will a child be able to learn about mathematics, literature, science, and the arts without a way to make connections across subject areas? Schools, especially teachers, help facilitate this process, and if schools are ever eliminated, parents should probably earn a teaching certificate before having children.
In my classroom, I want to introduce technology as often as I can, but I will remain aware of my reservations regarding the potential abyss of virtual social networks. With the use of wikis and blogs, students can learn the collaborative skills that will aid them in their futures. Teachers –
Web 2.0 can be our friends. Let us embrace it – but be cautious.
Postman, N. (2000). Some new gods that fail. San Francisco: The Jossey-Bass Reader on Technology and Learning, 289-298.
P.s.: With EDUC 504, we can enter the classroom more prepared than many other teachers (see David Warlick’s post on July 26th, “First Year Teachers”).
